ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



AT THE 

.A-NNU^lL meeting^ 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 11, 1864. 

BY EDWARD G. ^AILE, 




PRESIDENT. 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING 



N, Y, STATE AGRICUTURAL SOCIETY, 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 11, 1864, 

BY EDWAED G-. FAILE, 

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api?.Esii3EasrT. 



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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ALBANY: 

VAN BENTHUYSEN'S STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 
1864. 



ADDEESS. 

Gentlemen of the State Agricultural Society : 

We, as a Society, the sole aim and purpose of 
which is the furtherance and improvement of the 
Arts of Peace, meet once again amid the alarms 
of War, and while as citizens of our common 
country, we have abundant cause for thankful- 
ness toward that Good Providence which has so 
signally advanced the cause of human liberty and 
good government, since our last meeting, we have 
no less reason to be thankful for the abundant har- 
vests which have in an almost unprecedented 
manner rewarded the labors of the husbandman. 

We had, perhaps, sufficient cause for apprehen- 
sion, lest the great drain both of men and money, 
the unavoidable consequence of the war against 
rebellion on so gigantic a scale, and naturally the 
all-absorbing topic of the times, should affect, un- 
favorably, our Annual Fair ; yet it was eminently 
successful in the quality of the exhibition, in the 
numbers attending it, and in the interest mani- 



fested in all its proceedings, especially the eve- 
ning meetings, which were nightly crowded, and 
the scene of interesting and useful discussions on 
subjects important to farmers. 

Acknowledgements are due to his Honor the 
Mayor of the city of Utica, to the Common Coun- 
cil, and to the citizens generally, for the hospita- 
ble and accommodating spirit shown, but espe- 
cially should they be rendered to Mr. John 
Butterfield, for his strenuous and unremitting 
exertions in behalf of the Society, as to him Ave 
owe the possession of the most pleasantly located, 
spacious, and convenient grounds, and the most 
complete and comfortable buildings we have ever 
occupied. 

The financial success of the Fair, the quality 
of the animals shown, the variety of products and 
number of implements exhibited, as set forth in 
the reports of the Treasurer and of our honored 
Secretary, rank it among the most successful ever 
held by the Society, notwithstanding the almost 
entire loss of the last day, owing to a storm of 
unusual severity. 

In the department of Agricultural Implements 
there was an unusually full show, exhibiting 
many improvements upon valuable implements 



and machines already in use, and also a consider- 
able number of new inventions, showing that the 
enterprise of our mechanics is keeping pace with 
the increasing necessity for labor-saving ma- 
chinery, arising from the scarcity of farm laborers; 
and I think that the Society have great cause to 
feel gratified that year after year has shown a 
steady and large increase in this most important 
department. 

It proves that the manufacturers feel that the 
endorsement of the Society, through the prizes 
awarded after examination by competent judges, 
is an important element of success in the intro- 
duction of any new or improved implement, and 
also that the farming community have confidence 
in the justness and reliability of the awards so 
made. 

This is to my apprehension one of the most 
important of all the avenues of usefulness open 
to, or I should rather say trodden by this Society. 
It is only by improved cultivation, that we of the 
older States, working soils partially exhausted, 
which require high culture and liberal applica- 
tions of manure, can compete with the teeming 
West, and particularly now, when the high price 
of labor renders necessary every labor-saving 
implement. 



6 

And here I would suggest the expediency of 
the establishment of some system, by which a 
more timely and thorough examination of ma- 
chinery and implements, as well as the opportunity 
to test their practical working, may be had. 

At the Fair last fall there were Committees, 
whose lists numbered by hundreds, of implements 
and machinery, designed especially to promote 
the interests of farmers, many of them being of 
prime value and importance. Now, it is not pos- 
sible that satisfactory examinations of such long 
lists can be made in so short a time as is of neces- 
sity allotted to them, and I think that the 
maintenance of the high and well deserved repu- 
tation of the Society, which has induced the 
large increase in this department, requires that 
timely action should be taken on this subject. 

Standing in the presence of practical farmers, 
the majority of whom know more about the cul- 
ture of the earth than I do, I should not venture, 
even if I had the ability, to propound scientific 
theories, or to indicate systems of agriculture : on 
one point only will I say a few words, namely, 
Tile Drainage. 

From observation of the results of the thorough 
drainage of land, in which I have had a close 



personal interest, I am so entirely convinced of 
the importance of the subject, that I think it can- 
not be too persistently urged upon the attention 
of our farmers. I have seen a large meadow of 
rank, coarse grasses intermixed with rushes, which 
was wet throughout the year, and did not yield 
even in pasturage, a tithe of the amount of the 
interest on its cost per acre, thorough drained 
with tile in the spring and early summer, fallowed, 
and the following summer yielding a fair crop of 
barley. In another case the land was a swamp, 
yielding absolutely nothing, and within one ye&r, 
by thorough drainage, it was made to produce a 
crop of 54 bushels of shelled corn to the acre, 
which was followed the next season by a good crop 
of oats, and it is now sown to winter wheat, 
which gives extraordinary promise. There are 
small portions of similar wet land on many thous- 
ands of the farms in this State alone, which in the 
aggregate would make a large tract, now lying 
waste and useless, a large proportion of which 
could undoubtedly be reclaimed by tile drainage, 
and, being generally rich, strong soils, made to 
yield a good interest upon the outlay, to the own- 
ers, and at the same time add to the healthfulness 
of the neighborhoods, and the wealth of the State. 



In thus speaking of the reclaiming of wet lands, 
I would by no means be understood as considering 
the beneficial effects of tile drainage as confined 
to them. On the contrary, the testimony of the 
leading agriculturists of Great Britain, where the 
system has been most extensively practiced, is 
uniform as to its wonderful effect in increasing 
the productiveness of their clay lands. 

That eminently successful English farmer, Mr. 
Mechi, in his recently published edition of " How 
to farm profitably," remarking the difference in 
productiveness between drained and undrained 
clays, gives the following remarkable statement 
of his own experience. He says : 

" Let me illustrate this from actual facts. 

PRODUCE OF UNDRAINED CLAY. 

First year, fallow, rent and expenses, j£5 Os. Od. 
Second year, Oats producing 5 quar- 
ters, at 26s. 6 10 

PRODUCE OF DRAINED CLAY. 

First year, tares, fed off by sheep 

eating rape-cake, beans, &c <£5 18s. 4d. 

Second year, Oats producing 10 quar- 
ters, at 26s 13 

"I quote this particular crop because I have 
watched it this year in comparison with my own, 



9 

but we may carry out the comparison in almost 
all the others." We are not without instances of 
extensive draining by leading farmers of this 
State, and with strikingly favorable results ; but 
with us it is exceptional, and not general, as in 
Great Britain, and I would urge upon our farmers 
the importance of giving the subject more consid- 
eration than it has yet received. I am convinced 
that in Tile Draining there is a mine of wealth, 
that if worked would add millions to the value of 
the agricultural productions of our State. 

Through the years which have elapsed since the 
outbreak of this causeless and wicked rebellion, 
at times clouded by severe reverses, and again 
resplendent with glorious successes, the farmers 
of the country have held, with uninterrupted 
vigor and success, their onward way, and what 
they have done towards sustaining the Govern- 
ment in its great struggle, let a few figures, taken 
from the Report of the Department of Agricul- 
ture, show. 

During the year 1860, the total of Agricultural 
exports, exclusive of Cotton, was $90,849,556. In 
1862, when Civil War, in its most aggravated 
form, devastated the portions of the country in 
which it was waged, and by the death of Fathers, 
2 



10 

Sons, Brothers, upon the field of battle, brought 
sorrow, and ofttimes desolation to many thousands 
of homes throughout our land ; when the urgent 
wants of the Naval Department withdrew hund- 
reds of vessels from our mercantile marine ; when 
piratical cruisers, fitted out in the ports of a so- 
called neutral country swept the face of the ocean, 
in 1862, notwithstanding all these discourage- 
ments and drawbacks, our exports had rizen to 
$155,142,075, an increase of more than $64,000,- 
000, and this was mainly in breadstuffs, the value 
of exports of which in 1860, was $26,989,709, 
while in 1862, it was $84,340,653, and this besides 
furnishing the provisions of every description for 
our greatly increased navy, and our armies in the 
field ; those armies consuming a much larger per 
centage of products than they would at home, 
laboring as producers, as well as consumers, on 
the farms from whence a large proportion are 
taken. , 

Previous to the outbreak of the Rebellion, the 
products of the Southern States, mainly cotton, 
furnished the principal reliance for Exchange, and 
it would have been thought that ruin, instant and 
almost irretrievable, must follow the stoppage of 
their exportation ; and yet the ports of the South 



11 

were suddenly closed, and its products, so far at 
least as the Free States were concerned, with- 
drawn from the market, and though followed by a 
brief period of comparative stagnation, it was 
quickly recovered, and the tide of Commercial 
prosperity now rolls on with as strong a flow as 
at any time in the history of the country. I think 
that there is not in the history of the world, 
another instance of such agricultural and com- 
mercial prosperity, under similar adverse circum- 
stances, as has been exhibited in this country since 
the breaking out of the Rebellion, and I would 
press home to the consideration of ever}^ interest 
in our land, whether Financial, Commercial, or 
Mechanical, that the foundation upon which the 
prosperity of them all is based, is Agriculture ! 

I am sure that facts will sustain me in assert- 
ing, that so far as this State is concerned, its 
ability to maintain itself in the foremost rank, is 
largely due to the influence of this Society, brought 
to bear upon the people by its Annual Fairs, and 
by the publication, through its Journal and Trans- 
actions, of the practical beneficial results to 
Farmers, by the use of labor saving implements, 
and the practice of improved systems of Agricul- 
ture. 



12 

But to be enabled to gain the full benefit of the 
many experiments constantly being made to in- 
crease the productiveness of the soil by improved 
culture, and to carry them forward to profitable 
results, there is need for thorough agricultural 
education, the facilities for the attainment of 
which do not at present exist in this State. 

It is not necessary, nor indeed expedient for me 
here, to enter into any lengthy statement in re- 
gard to the effort to establish an Agricultural Col- 
lege, at the town of Ovid. Many of you are 
aware, that commencing under comparatively 
favorable circumstances, it w T as confidently an- 
ticipated that the College would soon become 
self-supporting ; but before there was time to de- 
velope its practical usefulness, this terrible war 
broke upon us, and its capable and zealous Presi- 
dent, General M. R. Patrick, Provost Marshal of 
the Army of the Potomac, yielding to the urgent 
call of the Governor of the State, resigned the 
charge of it to enter the service of the State, in a 
more arduous and responsible position, and has 
since been called to the service of the General 
Government, to which he is still patriotically de- 
voting his time and talents. 



13 

Subsequently, from various causes arising out 
of the war, the number of students decreased, and 
the Board of Trustees, with feelings of profound 
regret, found it necessary to close the doors of the 
College. Before doing so, however, they went 
before the Legislature with a statement of its 
affairs, asking an appropriation of the small sum 
of $5,000 per annum, for the period of five years, 
and though more than this sum would be required, 
it was their intention, b}' the aid of the appropri- 
ation, to keep the Institution in operation and 
free of debt for that length of time. The appro- 
priation was not made, and as a result, the Col- 
lege was closed, and probably must so remain until 
wiser councils prevail in our Legislature. 

The Congress of the United States, with a just 
appreciation of the vast importance of the agri- 
cultural interests of the country at large, granted 
munificent endowments of public lands to the 
several states, for the purpose of establishing Ag- 
ricultural Colleges, and for the promotion of the 
general interests of the farmers and mechanics of 
our land. The quantity of land received by the 
State of New York, was 990,000 acres, and the 
Trustees of the College, with, as I think, no un- 
reasonable expectation, anticipated that a portion 



14 

of this great endowment would be appropriated to 
the sustainment of an Agricultural College already- 
organized ; but the Legislature, in their wisdom, 
have disposed of it differently. 

Do the Farmers feel that the disposition made 
of this endowment by the Legislature was the 
wisest and best that could be made under the cir- 
cumstances, and likely to redound most largely to 
the advantage of those interests which it was in- 
tended to foster and promote ? If not, with them 
rests the power to compel a reconsideration of this 
legislation, and to cause such disposition of the 
revenue arising from this source, as will secure its 
full benefits. 

In view of the great results from the Agricul- 
tural industry of the Free States, and the devel- 
opment of power and resource, to an extent which 
few, even of the most sanguine, anticipated, does 
it not behoove us to look well to it, that the inter- 
ests of our Agriculturists should receive timely 
and proper attention ? 

The proud motto of our State is " Excelsior," 
and she yet maintains the first place in popula- 
tion, in value of agricultural products, and in 
commerce ; and most earnestly do I hope that our 
noble State will always hold that proud pre-emi- 



15 

nence. Yet others are pressing hard after, and as 
a well recognized means to the end aimed at, (the 
increase of their agricultural products,) are with 
wise foresight fostering the interests of the pro- 
ducers, by liberal appropriations of the public 
money. 

For instance, the Legislature of the compara- 
tively Aveak State of Michigan, has made appro- 
priations of the following amounts for the estab- 
lishment and support of an Agricultural College, 
viz : 

In 1855 — The proceeds of the sale of 22 

sections of Salt Springs Land $56,320. 

In 1857 — An appropriation of 40,000. 

« 1859— Do. 37,500. 

" 1861— Do. 16,500. 

« 1863— Do 18,000. 

In 1861, the State donated 6,000 acres 
of Swamp land, valued at $5.00 per 

acre 30,000. 

Making a total of $198,320. 

And in addition to all this, the Legislature, at 
its session last winter, passed over to the College 
the Congressional grant of 240,000 acres of land. 



16 

How very forcibly does their enlightened lib- 
erality contrast with the course of our Legisla- 
ture ! 

This subject of Education, with a particular 
reference to Agricultural Pursuits, is one of such 
great importance to the State, to the community, 
and to every individual citizen, that I am unwil- 
ling to pass it lightly. With our last President, 
I feel it to be a great misfortune, that the feeling 
should so generally exist among our farming com- 
munity, that the mere rudiments of education 
are sufficient for the boy who intends to be a 
Farmer, often for the sake of his assistance on 
the farm, depriving him of availing to anything 
like the full extent, of the advantages which are 
afforded by our noble system of common schools ; 
whilst, for the one who chooses to follow some one 
of those called the Learned Professions, he recog- 
nizes the necessity of a longer period for study, 
and all the advantages for the attainment of gene- 
ral information, and mental training, offered by a 
Collegiate course. 

Now, there is no man in any profession or 
pursuit in life who more needs the aid of a tho- 
rough education, especially in the physical sci- 
ences, than the farmer. Whether he farms for 



17 

the production of cereals alone, gives his atten- 
tion to the feeding of animals for market, or to 
the introduction and improvement of Stock, he is 
constantly brought in contact with the great laws 
of nature ; and, though he may and does learn 
much that is valuable by mere experience, how 
much more might he learn and communicate for 
the general benefit, if that experience was utilized 
by a general intelligence, and a knowledge of the 
laws and principles that govern all production. 

Isaac Newton, the Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture, in his late interesting and valuable Report, 
says : "Agriculture is a growth like the plant it 
cultivates, and like the mind also, the more it is 
developed the more it yields. It can be easily 
shown that there is no occupation of life where 
extensive knowledge is more necessary than in 
the proper cultivation of the soil. There is no 
occupation so intimately blended with all the 
branches of the natural sciences, to which geol- 
ogy, chemistry, botany and entomology are such 
valuable auxiliaries. Of all human pursuits, 
Agriculture is first in order, in necessity and im- 
portance. The best farmer is always the most 
intelligent man, and a community of knowledge 
is one of the strongest ties that can bind and bless 
3 



18 

society. The simple argument, therefore, is this : 
increased scientific and practical knowledge, in 
any occupation, increases man's power in a ten- 
fold ratio ; Agricultural knowledge, therefore, be- 
gets productiveness, and in the same proportion 
developes the wealth, the prosperity and the pro- 
gress of our country." Sir Humphrey Davy once 
remarked, when speaking of the future influence 
of Agricultural Chemistry, that " nothing is im- 
possible to labor aided by science. The objects of 
the skillful Agriculturist are like those of the 
thoughtful patriot. Men value most what they 
have gained with effort, and a just confidence in 
their own powers results from success. They love 
their country better because they have seen it im- 
proved by their own talents and industry, and they 
identify with their own interests the existence of 
those institutions and pursuits, which have 
afforded them security, independence and the 
multiplied enjoyments of civilized life." If these 
remarks of this eminent man were applicable to 
the British Agriculturist, are they not tenfold 
more so to the American, who owns the soil he 
cultivates, and the main leading interest of whose 
comparatively boundless country is, and must 
always be, Agriculture ! 



19 

Do Americans realize the gigantic strides which 
Agriculture has made, and is making in the West ? 
Take a single decade, and look at the vast increase 
of productions ! I take the following figures from 
the Report of the Department of Agriculture : — 

Iowa, in 1850, produced 1,530,581 bushels of 
wheat, and in 1860, 8,433,205 bushels ; of Indian 
Corn, in 1850, 8,656,799 bushels, and in 1860, 
41,117,000 bushels. 

Minnesota produced of Wheat, in 1850, 1,401 
bushels, and in 1860, 2,195,812 bushels ; of Indian 
Corn, in 1850, 16,725 bushels, and in 1860, 2,987,- 
570 bushels. 

And this increase runs through all their Agri- 
cultural productions, in nearly the same ratio. 
Nor is it confined to the States mentioned, but will 
be exhibited in a greater or less degree in every 
Western State. 

Now, we of the older States have sent forth, 
and will for a long period continue to send forth, 
the stalwart men by whose untiring labor and 
ready intelligence the Great West has been de- 
veloped, and the consequent immense addition to 
the wealth of the country ; and is it not highly 
important that they should go armed with scien- 
tific knowledge as well as practical experience, 



20 

that they may preserve, by judicious culture, the 
pristine richness of these garden lands of our 
country, which will, in a not remote future, be- 
come the central granaries, whence swarming 
millions will draw the Staff of Life ? 

One other remark in regard to Agricultural 
Education, and I have done. 

The question has often been asked me, as it has 
doubtless of many of those before me this evening, 
by gentlemen resident in cities, professional men or 
merchants : " Where can I send my son to learn 
farming ? Is there any Agricultural School or Col- 
lege in this State ?" I do not know of any. I might 
advise that he be placed with some good farmer, 
to learn practical farming, in the absence of any 
institution, where he might learn both theory and 
practice ; but there again I am at fault, for I can- 
not name to him any farmer with whom he may 
be placed, nor do I know how he can ascertain 
whether there are any farmers who would take 
this class of young men to be educated in the pro- 
fession they desire to learn. 

Every man of intelligence knows full well the 
importance of capital to thorough farming opera- 
tions. I should rather say, the necessity of it — 
and one great reason why there are so many poor 



21 

farmers and so much poor farming in this country, 
undoubtedly is, the very small percentage of capi- 
tal employed to the breadth of land cultivated. 
In England it is estimated that the working capi- 
tal of a farmer should average from $35 to $50 
per acre; and while we cannot expect this, and 
perhaps do not need so much in this country, yet 
there is great room for improvement, and conse- 
quently every reason why the opportunity of 
learning how to farm should be open to the class 
who, possessing capital, could, and if we judge 
from the results in England, would do much to 
improve the general character of our farming, and 
to increase the average productivness of our land. 
No one, I think, can doubt this who has ob- 
served the immense improvement in neat stock 
alone, effected during the past ten years by a few 
of the leading farmers of this State, most if not 
all of them active and prominent members of 
this Society ; and the effects of their improve- 
ments, great and valuable as they are in the pre- 
sent, will be carried forward with an increasing 
ratio of value into the far future. 

Individually, and as a Society, we may bring a 
great influence to bear in forwarding the cause of 
Agricultural Education, and I think posterity will 



22 

award high honor to those who shall be instru- 
mental in establishing a complete and thorough 
working system. 

During the year which has elapsed since, by 
your kind partiality, I was called upon to preside 
over the interests of this Society, we have to 
mourn the loss of two active and prominent mem- 
bers — the one stricken down on the field of battle 
while in the brave and faithful discharge of a 
patriot's highest duty,* and the other dying from 
the results of exposure while in the service of the 
country.f We regret them as friends, we miss 
them as earnest and able co-workers in our wide 
field of usefulness, and will garner their memories 
among our kindest remembrances. 

In closing, let me say that, in devolving the 
Presidency upon another, I lay aside only official 
duties and honors. My earnest and hearty inte- 
rest in and for the Society endures, and I look 
forward while life and health are spared me, to a 
continuance of my pleasant labors in its ranks. 

There now only remains to me the pleasant duty 
of introducing my successor. 

* Col. Sherrel, of Geneva. f ^ ol> Francis M. Rotch, of Otsego. 



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'."trroRY of congress 



0002 744 217 



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